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Iran, North Korea, Cuba.... Costa Rica

Somewhere in The Islamic Republic of Iran, there is an American citizen who's going to die in prison because he spoke badly about the prophet Muhammad. The lesser intelligent of you who are reading this post will not be able to make the connection between that and Cuba Dave's situation. And to those who think this site breaks any laws, this site is hosted in a country where free speech is protected. So go fuck yourself.

If you visit Argentina and fall in love with Tango, write a book about it, blogs, show videos of yourself dancing, and generally raving about how Argentina is the tango destination everyone needs to check out. How is this different in the world of free speakers than Cuba Dave raving about how great the hookers are in Costa Rica? And I place a high importance on the 'free speakers' part. Because you can't do that in Costa Rica anymore.

Let me repeat that for all the slow thinkers (Ticos) reading this article. COSTA RICA IS THE REASON COSTA RICA IS A SEX TOURIST DESTINATION. When you create the perfect storm of staggering corruption, poor education, religious dominion of reproductive services, and a general moral flexibility, you get a tortilla republic making laws like this. Some women sell themselves because they want to for reasons of financial betterment, But most enter the sex trade because they need to. It's usually a story about a dead-beat dad who knocked the girl up and then disappeared, but there are other versions of the same story. Young (and old) woman gets in a financial jam, lack of opportunity in Costa Rica makes non-sexual opportunities unavailable, so she enters the sex trade.

Tell me one thing that Cuba Dave said in any of his online postings that wasn't true. The truth is, Cuba Dave didn't change one single fact about Costa Rica or the Costa Rica sex trade, ever. It existed long before Dave showed up. It will exist long after they send Dave back to the US. Some of the reason this isn't getting a ton of airtime, besides the victim being a sex tourist, is because this 'law' was tucked into a rider about human trafficking. Suggesting that the smiling girls in Cuba Dave's videos are victims of trafficking.

The motive for Costa Rica arresting Cuba Dave is two fold. First, large scale prostitution is the mole on Costa Rica's nose they don't want anyone to point out, and Dave did so in spectacular fashion. Second, is that these 3rd world baboons are going to try to use this as some bizarre way to ask my country for money. Which is what corrupt 3rd world oligarchies do when they can't make ends meet. They're broke, and they need to display some pretend indignation before they ask for human trafficking grants from Uncle Sam. Instead of combating laziness and stupidity, they stretch their opposing thumbs out to my country, where most of us work for a living, and say "Hey, we're fighting this serious problem, and need more money to do it. And we promise not to steal it this time".

This has been the most lively issue on the boards in a long time, and it's nice to see that. This entire situation is a great opportunity to study how law works in countries other than the ones in which we were born. Some comments on the above post...

to those who think this site breaks any laws, this site is hosted in a country where free speech is protected

That is true, but the location where the site is hosted is often irrelevant to a country enforcing its own laws on its own soil. It doesn't matter if you host a website in Costa Rica, the USA, Canada, or China. If Costa Rica decides that your activity constitutes a crime, then you might be arrested when your feet touch Costa Rican soil. This is one of the Core Principles of Sovereignty. I occasionally get asked by clients, "How can Costa Rica (or any other country) Do That?" The simple answer is, "Costa Rica (or any other country) can do whatever it wants to do, and that is the end of the discussion... PERIOD." You can argue until you're blue in the face that that's just not right, it's screwed up, that's unconstitutional (your opinion), etc. Well... Costa Rica (or any other country) doesn't give One Single Flying Fuck what you, I, or anyone else thinks about their laws. You might think that Costa Rica is "wrong", but what you did is still illegal. If Costa Rica says it's illegal, then it's illegal... If the USA says it's illegal, then it's illegal... and so on...

In any Sovereign State on Planet Earth, what is legal and illegal is nothing more complicated than whatever that State says is legal and illegal. You can say it's wrong or unjust all you want, but it's a concrete fact that if a Sovereign State says that it's illegal, then it's 100% guaranteed true that it's illegal. The very definition of something being illegal in Costa Rica is that Costa Rica said, "It's illegal because I said so... THAT's why it's illegal!"

I can read Spanish, but understanding Costa Rican law and legalese is extremely difficult if you're not a native Spanish-speaker brought up in Latin American culture. Even ultra-fluent Spanish-speakers are often at a loss to translate law into English or even understand the law. This is an idea known as the "Three Cs: Context, Concept, Connotation"

The applicable law in Costa Rica basically refers to the illegality of the promotion of the sex trade and profit from the sex trade. What Cubadave does is a lot different from what this website does. Ticaland and CRT are about 0.1% likely to be accused of doing anything illegal by the Costa Rican government anytime soon, but that can always change. As I've posted before, I don't take risks that I don't have to take. If I thought for a moment that I could potentially be accused of doing anything illegal by anyone with the authority to make that accusation, I would not be posting on this board.

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We've all heard of "Sin" taxes... Taxes on Cigarettes, Alcohol, etc. Well, prostitution in Costa Rica is largely viewed as a "Sin" activity. I find that I keep coming back to the subject of Cigarettes in the USA. Cigarettes are legal, so why are the cigarette companies discriminated against by not being allowed to advertise on radio and television? "Unfair!" I say. But it's still illegal. Free speech, in both the USA and Costa Rica, does not include the right to say anything that you want, anywhere that you want. There ARE restrictions. This is one of them. You don't have to like them, you don't have to agree that they are fair... but they DO still have the Force of Law.

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The most relevant thing about this incident, however, is this...

Everyone, including myself and Jonesie, keeps coming back to the same point...

The Costa Rican courts, I suppose, will eventually decide whether or not Cubadave broke the law. But Cubadave did NOT get arrested because he broke the law. Cubadave got arrested because he broke the law (technically, ALLEGEDLY broke the law) in a Spectacular Fashion, and someone finally got pissed off enough to do something about it. Who knows? Maybe the last time that Cubadave was in Costa Rica, he went out to dinner, sat down at a table next to a senior executive of the Caja, and started bragging about his latest sexcapades. Or maybe, as discussed earlier, someone decided that they didn't like Cubadave for some reason and Narc'ed on him.

Believe Me... The post above by Jonesie is absolutely right. Costa Rica makes Costa Rica a sex tourism destination. People enjoy mongering here, and the news spreads by word of mouth through a large informal network of like-minded individuals. Costa Rica WANTS the mongers here, they just don't want someone turning themselves into an online celebrity by basically implying that the entire country is a Whorehouse. There is an explosion of non-mongering tourism going on right now, and after the dip in the U.S. economy a few years ago, it's a welcome change. Costa Rica wants the mongers here, but there are a least a few people in the government who are paranoid that "Ugly American Mongers" are going to scare away the rich, non-mongering tourists.

I mentioned 'this site is hosted in a free speech country, is because they can't get warrants to search this site. They can't find out who the owner is. They can't take it down.

This isn't to say my government couldn't show them. it's saying there's more of a process than some 3rd world baboon didn't like what I said.

Absolutely. When it comes to "behind the scenes" information... information that is not Posted on the website... you're always safer by keeping your site in a country outside of the country in which you might be breaking the law (not saying the site breaks the law... I mean that as a "blanket" statement). Although Costa Rica and the USA are as Thick as Thieves, there is a process that takes time and something more than a whim to get that information. If a law enforcement or government official in Costa Rica calls a law enforcement or government official in the USA and says, "We'd really like for you to hand over all the information that you can find about Ticaland.com and its Owner and send that to us, because we think that he might be using the site to commit a crime in Costa Rica", the response from the USA is going to be, "I've got a better idea... Why don't you just hang up the phone, and go have yourself a nice, hot cup of 'Don't EVER Fucking Call Me Again with WE THINK as your reason for a request for private and personal information'."